ENABLE Wins R&D 100 Award

A scanning electron micrograph of tall (35:l aspect ratio), closelypacked, well-defined, 200-nm-diameter pillars etched with ENABLE into a polyimide film using nanospheres as a shadow mask.

Each year, R&D Magazine picks the 100 most significant technological advances in research and industry and honors them with awards that The Chicago Tribune called, “The Oscars or Invention.”

Chemistry Division staff have regularly contributed R&D 100 Award winners, and this year is no exception. Mark Hoffbauer’s team in CHEM-ACDI has won a 2006 R&D 100 Award for their innovative and amzingly versitile Energetic Neutral Atom Beam Lithography & Epitax (ENABLE) technology.

Employing an energetic collimated beam of neutral nitrogen or oxygen atoms, ENABLE comprises a dual-function nanofabrication technology capable of both growing thin films and etching high-aspect-ratio nanostructures. It is unique in that its low-temperature operation spares the activation of diffusive and other unwanted surface chemical changes that are drawbacks of existing nanofabrication processes. Because its high-aspect-ratio nanoscale etching and rapid high-quality film growth capabilities can be readily combined, ENABLE technology is theoretically capable of fabricating details down to 1 nm or less in size, giving it greater versatility than current nanofabrication processes.